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With Léonce Rosenberg, Galerie de l'Effort Moderne, Paris (stock no. 5177), until at least c. 1920 [1]; Pierre Faure, Paris, after 1920 [2]; with Galerie Simon, Paris, as of 1937, and possibly by 1933 (stock no. 0460) [3]; sold to A. E. Gallatin, New York, June 1937 [4]; bequest to PMA, 1952.
1. Stock number L.R. 5177 on verso of painting. Rosenberg owned the painting at least until c. 1920, when it was reproduced in the Paris periodical Action as "Collection L. Rosenberg."
2. Faure is listed as a previous owner in Douglas Cooper's catalogue raisonné, but this information cannot be confirmed by examination of the painting because any marks or labels were lost when it was reframed. According to Cooper, Faure formed his large collection of 26 paintings by Gris between 1915 and 1927, buying from Léonce Rosenberg. Some 21 oil paintings owned by Faure appeared in the 1933 Zürich Gris exhibition (all pre-1920). Cooper states that the entire collection was acquired by the Galerie Simon in 1933 (Cooper, The Essential Cubism, 1983, pp. 25, 31).
3. For the stock number see Douglas Cooper, Juan Gris, Paris, 1977, vol. 1, no. 204, p. 304.
4. Letter from Daniel-Henry Kahnweiler to Gallatin dated June 10, 1937, noting the purchase of this painting and "Coffee-Pot" (1952-61-35) also by Gris. See also Gallatin's letter of August 1 [1937] to George L.K. Morris: "…Kahnweiler recently bought a fine collection of about 18 Gris. Two of them (topping) you will see in New York" (cited by Gail Stavitsky, The Development, Institutionalization, and Impact of the A. E. Gallatin Collection of Modern Art [Ph.D. dissertation, New York University], 1990, v. 7, p. 105). This group of 18 works probably represented a portion of Faure's private collection, which comprised about 26 paintings by Gris as well as works by other Cubists. According to Cooper's catalogue raisonné, 16 paintings by Gris are known to have gone directly from Faure to Kahnweiler's Galerie Simon.